Can we expect an NBA championship from this squad within the next 5 years? How high is Nikola Jokic‘s ceiling? Will Jamal Murray develop into just a role player or potential superstar?

— Connor Nimmons, Louisville

I don’t think that’s an unrealistic goal. Barring something crazy (i.e. a blockbuster trade), Jokic and Murray are going to be in Denver for a long time. Those are the first two pieces and then you build out. If Michael Porter Jr. reaches his potential, they’d have an extremely enviable – and young – core. Add in intriguing parts like Malik Beasley and an injury-free year from Gary Harris and I think they’ve got the building blocks for a title team. Perhaps the last player or two comes via trade or free agency, but as owner Josh Kroenke said recently, they’ve put themselves in position where they don’t need to swing for the fences in transactions to be competitive.

Is there one or two players out there that make the Nuggets a viable threat/contender for the title in 2020? Could a trade scenario for say Jimmy Butler/JJ Reddick be an option — give up Harris, Paul Millsap and Trey Lyles? I’d like to see Jonas Valanciunas replace Mason Plumlee and a play made for Julius Randle with Porter still in the mix. Your thoughts?

— Crag (aka “The Sports Professor”), Modesto, Calif.

Sure, if the Nuggets land Kevin Durant or Kawhi Leonard in free agency, they’d immediately be title contenders. But they don’t have the space to sign a max guy, and they’ve already publicly said they want to bring Paul Millsap back.

As for your Jimmy Butler scenario, I’m confident in saying the Nuggets will steer clear of Butler. The former Bulls star (doesn’t that feels like five years ago?) does not have a great reputation after torching two locker rooms en route to Philadelphia. I like Julius Randle, too, but with Millsap expected to return, that’s probably a non-starter. Outside of trade scenarios, I’d keep an eye on the wing for guys they might try and go after. Danny Green, Terrence Ross, Bojan Bogdanovic and Rudy Gay could be possibilities.

The Nuggets have had a great season, but I can’t help wondering how much better they’d be if they hadn’t made the trade with Utah that got us Trey Lyles, a player out of the rotation, and Tyler Lydon, who rarely even puts on a uniform. Meanwhile, Donovan Mitchell (who was part of the trade) has been one of the league’s most exciting players for two years with Utah. Nuggets management has unearthed a few gems like Monte Morris and Torrey Craig, but this was a huge miss.

— Bob Osborne, Westminster

The Nuggets will be forever tied to Mitchell because they made the deal, but it’s a little unfair since, to my understanding, they weren’t even targeting Mitchell. They just helped facilitate the Jazz getting him and actually wanted somebody else further down.

And if that one’s going to haunt fans, don’t forget Denver robbed the Bulls in 2014 when they traded Doug McDermott for the picks that became Jusuf Nurkic and Gary Harris.

During the playoffs, coach Michael Malone was using a nine-man rotation, which is fine. However, when it was obvious the bench wasn’t helping, why didn’t we see Lyles, Hernangomez or Isaiah Thomas? Something needed to be done.

— Gregory Weiss, Denver

The longer the season went on, the more Lyles’ confidence appeared to wane. Yes, the Nuggets’ reserves let them down in the playoffs, but turning to him or Isaiah Thomas wasn’t a viable option. The Thomas experiment never got off the ground, and they certainly couldn’t afford his defense on either Damian Lillard or C.J. McCollum. I do think there was some merit to giving Juancho a look, but as last week’s core surgery indicated, he was playing hurt throughout the majority of the second half of the season.

Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, and Rodney Hood: Name three Nuggets who are equally durable and talented at their positions? While I love them to death, the Nuggets continue to be vastly more entertaining this year than in the past few. But, also continue to fall short of what it takes to make over the hump as an elite team.

Jokic (80) and Murray (75) played in almost every game this season. Paul Millsap, Malik Beasley, Mason Plumlee, Monte Morris and Torrey Craig all played in at least 70. Hood caught lightning in a bottle and was the difference in their second-round series, and Lillard and McCollum are two of the best at their positions. The question seems a bit reactionary. The Nuggets struggled on the wing where Harris and Will Barton both missed significant time. I think it should be viewed as a win that they managed 54 wins and the No. 2 seed despite so much time missed from two of their regulars.

Mike Singer is the Denver Nuggets beat writer for The Denver Post. A Cleveland native, he is also the former NBA editor at USA TODAY. He previously covered the Chicago Bulls for CSNChicago.com and worked at CBSSports.com.